Frank A. Dinucci, president and CEO of Connecticut Innovations, is resigning from the organization after leading it for only five months, the Hartford Business Journal has confirmed. His departure is effective April 30.
He indicated in a letter to CI’s Board of Directors that he was leaving for personal reasons, according to members of the board, who voted to accept the letter last week.
Dinucci is the second president of the quasi-public investor in technology to last less than a year, and the organization, in Rocky Hill, has had five presidents in less than seven years.
His predecessor, Chandler J. Howard, served as president of the organization for about six months before leaving to lead a community development bank in New Haven last year. Victor R. Budnick ran the organization until April 2005.
“Obviously everybody was really shocked. We’ve been here before. We didn’t expect to be here again so soon,” said Elaine A. Pullen, chair of CI’s Board.
Pullen said she felt confident that Dinucci’s reasons for leaving were strictly personal, saying, “It has nothing to do with CI, or our work, or the environment there.”
Still, management questions besieged Dinucci after the bidding process of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, managed by CI, was found to have irregularities by the Office of Consumer Council and the state Auditors of Public Accounts, following a whistleblower complaint during Howard’s tenure.
As a result, the General Assembly is considering removing CCEF from the purview of the organization.
After Howard left, Dinucci, of Wilton, was recommended to CI’s board of directors by Alan Mendelson, co-founder of Axiom Venture Partners, in Hartford. Mendelson previously worked with Dinucci at Aetna. A former partner at New Canaan’s Forest Street Capital, Dinucci has more than 30 years experience investing in biomedical, healthcare and information technology.
He made a quick start in making deals at CI, committing $1 million to LegiTime Technologies of Westport and — in an announcement Monday-another $700,000 in Standing Stone Inc., also of Westport.
“I think the general response was that people were surprised that he was leaving, and that he had done a great job leading CI,” said CI board member Paul R. Pescatello. He said Dinucci wanted to speak with CI staff members before making a public announcement.
But questions about mismanagement of CCEF persisted after his arrival. Dinucci, a self-acknowledged novice in terms of politics and public service, has watched as CCEF’s performance has been lambasted in public hearings. Before the energy committee in February, Rep. George M. Wilber (D-Colebrook) said of CCEF’s management of project in his district: “Since I entered government in 1973, I have never seen a more appalling example of government inefficiency and waste.”
Dinucci is traveling in Europe on vacation until next week.
